Reclaimer
by silentlinkmit339
Summary: James' precious Pokemon has been stolen by team rocket. How will he reclaim what is rightfully his? OC's for most of the first arc. No pairings yet.
1. Chapter 1

It was dark, and very windy. Leaves were being ripped off the trees helplessly as the wind gusted and lightning flashed. In the distance, an orange glow could be seen as the plains, now dry as fall was almost complete, became the fuel for a fire started from a lightning strike. It was a terrible storm, yet the rain had not begun to fall.

In the midst of all this, an orange flying type pokemon could be seen chasing after something, with its trainer riding along on its back. The fire from its tail burned brightly in the deepening darkness as it sped along, trying to catch up to a blue dragon type pokemon with red wings, which also bore its trainer on its back.

A boy about eighteen years old, who wore a black tee shirt, camouflage cargo pants, and black, military-style boots, shouted above the gale, "Don't let him get away, Char-kun!"

Charizard roared in acknowledgment as he increased his speed to maximum, closing the gap between himself and the trainer riding the Salamence. Looking back, the trainer saw that Charizard was coming up fast. "Alright, Salvatorie," the trainer clad in a black long sleeve shirt with a big, red 'R' on it, who also wore black pants and white boots, "they've taken the bait. We just need to speed up a bit, the trap is not too far away now."

Salvatorie grunted, affirming that it received the orders, and boosted his speed a bit, "that's the way, Salvatorie. Now, when I tell you, I need you to execute as steep of a climb as you can." Salvatorie roared as it allowed the charizard to come in closer. Just as charizard was about to engage it in aerial combat, the trainer clad in black yelled, "Now, Salvatorie!"

The Salamence roared as it angled it's wings upward, throwing his body into a steep climb. Charizard roared in annoyance as it looked at the salamence rise quickly. "Char-kun! Barrel roll," yelled his trainer as Charizard looked and saw a bunch of missle pods let loose their payload into the sky. He did as he was told and did a quick barrel roll, followed by a dive-and-climb maneuver. Charizard managed to shake most of the missles.

"Now, Salvatorie! Maximum hyper beam!" roared the trainer from team rocket. The Salamence roared in response as it charged up and, after a couple seconds, fired off a massive hyper beam. The beam connected with Charizard right as he came to the crest of his climb.

Charizard roared in pain as he took the full brunt of the hyper beam. His trainer was clinging to charizard for dear life as they fell due to charizard being hurt badly by the hyper beam. "Char-kun, snap out of it, man!" it's trainer yelled, "come on, buddy, you've taken worse hits than this."

Charizard opened his eyes and his wings just in time for him to land roughly on the ground, causing his trainer to fall off onto the ground. As this happened, a loud series of bangs was heard as a series of nets flew into charizard from all directions. Charizard roared in pain as he was electrocuted by the metal net that had hit him first.

"No! Charizard!" his trainer yelled as he reached for his pokeball, thrusting it towards charizard, "Return!" The red beam shot out of the pokeball but was blocked by the amount of nets that there were, making it impossible for the trainer to reclaim his pokemon. Just as he was about to try to get inside of the nets to reach his pokemon, who had fallen to the ground unconscious, a swift kick had connected to the side of his head, rendering the trainer unconscious and causing the pokeball to fly out of his hand and roll down the nearby hill.

Laughing softly as he crouched down near the fallen trainer, the team rocket operative said softly, "Well, James, looks like this is the end of the line for you. Don't worry, though, I'll take good care of Char-kun."

Moaning, James woke up to find himself tied to a tree. Taking a quick look around, James saw nobody nearby. "Char-kun?" he called out hopelessly as James searched for his friend. When he only reaffirmed his initial inspection of his surroundings, and received the same results, James cried out, "CHAR-KUN!"

Well, now that I have your attention (or at least I hope that I do), I'm the author (duh). Welcome aboard this crazy idea that I have for a story. It was inspired by a dream that I had of a charizard that I won't share the details to because it will be manifest later in the story. At this moment, I don't really have any pairings. This is all because I have no idea where this story is going to go to get to those moments I saw in my dream. I'm sure that I will cause my OC's to run across characters from the series at some point.

Now, in regards to that, there are a few things that i'm going to change pertaining to the "Canon" of the pokemon world. First off, the characters from the show are going to be the age that they would have been had they grown at the same rate as we did when we first started watching the show. Secondly, I am most likely going to change the limit of how many pokemon a person can carry with them from six to eight. I don't think this is too outrageous of a change due to the fact that they just realeased a new game so there are now over 700 pokemon. I have a hard time choosing six from all of that, much less eight.

Also, i'm probably going to combine some ideas from other anime into this fanfic. This is not a for certain thing, and if I do, you'll know because of the disclaimer that i'll have to post. I would like to formally declare right now: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON! This is the disclaimer that I will be referring to when you see the "disclaimer:see end of chapter one".

Now, i'm curious to see what you thought of this first scene. Please tell me if I am making any grammatical mistakes as well as any writers mistakes (like things that i'm not doing, could I do better on description, etc...) that I may make. If your comment looks like a flame, i'm going to ignore it. So anyway, thanks for checking this story out and I hope that y'all will stay along for the ride. It'll help motivate me to keep going. Ja ne!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** so...i lied about the first upload being "the first chapter". It ended up being a prologue. Anywho, so here's the first official chapter. **Disclaimer:** see the prologue.

Chapter One: Starting over

Rain trickled around James as the gale from the windstorm died down, slowly progressing into a steady rainfall. A flash of lightning, followed closely by the clap of thunder, caused him to wake up from unconsciousness. James peered around blearily, searching once again for Charizard, and failing to find him. Despair set in, finally, as James slumped against the ropes. "Char-kun," James mumbled as tears began to fall down his face, "I'm sorry, buddy."

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"NO!" James shouted as he awoke with a start, sitting up abruptly in his bed. As his breathing calmed, he laid back down and closed his eyes. James could still see it clearly to this day the events that led up to the loss of his best friend and pokemon. Rolling over on his side and brushing some of his long, blonde hair out of his eyes, James saw Char-kun's pokeball sitting on the nightstand. He kept it there as a reminder so that he would never forget his pokemon.

"James?" a voice asked from behind his bedroom door as there was a knock on it, "are you alright?"

"Yes," James replied in a resigned tone, "I'm fine, Jasmine."

"Okay," Jasmine said, "you missed breakfast but I saved you some. Its in the fridge, so all you have to do is heat it up."

"Thanks, I'll be down in a little while to eat it."

"Alright then, Scizor and I are going out to train. We'll be back later on," Jasmine informed as she walked away from the door, her voice getting quieter as she moved further from the door.

Sighing to himself, James reluctantly rolled out of bed. He went over to the door, opening it, and descended down the stairs, still clad in his white tee shirt and blue shorts that he usually wore to bed. Rounding the corner at the bottom of the stairs, James walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Staring for a few moments, he saw french toast and eggs sitting on a plate wrapped in clear plastic wrap. Deciding that this was what everyone else had eaten this morning, James retrieved the plate, removed the plastic wrap and set it in the microwave to warm it up a little.

Looking around the kitchen, James remembered when Char-kun, who was only a Charmander at the time and, therefore, still able to fit inside a house, would be running in circles on the kitchen floor, chasing after his tail. Those were good memories that he liked to remember, compared to the nightmare that he seemed to have been having for the past year. Always the same dream, and it would always happen right before he woke up. It usually took him a good hour after waking up to be able to function on a normal level after having relived that nightmare for the umpteenth time.

For the first month after it had happened, James went out religiously looking for his lost pokemon. His friends had all chipped in because Char-kun had been a friend to them as well. Towards the end of the month, however, after having come up with nothing, the group decided that they wouldn't be able to find James' lost Charizard. They had no clues, no trail to follow, nothing.

"Maybe," James spoke out loud to himself, opening the microwave after it went off, "maybe it's time to move on." He thought on this for a while. Sure, it felt like he was giving up on Char-kun, but James decided that he had been out of the game for too long. And without any pokemon of his own, it was no wonder why his friends had convinced him to stop looking for the time being. They all had things that they needed to do, assignments to fulfill, as he once had.

Nodding his head, James decided, if we was ever going to find his friend again, even after a year with not so much as a whisper of Char-kun, that he'd have to begin anew. This would mean that he would have to train a new pokemon as well. This thought excited him, yet made him nervous. After all, there would always be that small fear that this would happen again. Yet, the timing couldn't be more perfect. Professor Oak was coming to Viridian City to give out three pokemon to new trainers. He had met with the professor many times before and, after the incident a year ago, Professor Oak promised James that if he found himself in need of a new pokemon that James could come and ask for one. Today seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask for just that.

Finishing the luke warm eggs and french toast, something that he'd always enjoyed even as a kid, James showered quickly and donned his old getup from back when he'd been training full time. Looking at himself in the mirror, James was reminded once again of that evening as he buckled his pokeball belt on. Of course, the belt didn't help as it had a design of the evolution of charizard all the way around it. Shaking his head, James reminded himself that what he was doing today was going to help him find Char-kun. He nodded to himself, left the room, and exited the house.

The streets of Viridian City were always bustling with some sort of activity on any given day. Today, however, seemed more busy than normal. James could only speculate but he figured that it was because the professor had just arrived in town. Following the crowd, who he assumed would be heading in the direction that the professor was, James soon found himself in front of the Pokemon Center.

Smiling to himself, James muttered, "Figures that the professor would be handing out pokemon here." Navigating the crowd, James managed to nudge his way to the front, where he saw the all to familiar faces of Professor Oak, Officer Jenny, and Nurse Joy standing in front of the Pokemon center. Officer Jenny, as usual, was working tirelessly at keeping order while Nurse Joy, as per the norm, stood next to Professor Oak.

"Now, now," the professor chuckled, "settle down, I only have three pokemon with me today. So, who will the lucky three trainers be."

James wanted to raise his hand but he was beaten to it by some little kid who was in front of him, jumping up and down trying frantically to get the professor's attention. 'Jeez,' James thought, 'surely this kid isn't ten years old.'

The youngster ran forward when the professor pointed at him, repeating over and over, "Squirtle, I want Squirtle."

Laughing at the youngster's enthusiasm, Professor Oak handed him a pokeball and said, "alright then, young man, its all yours."

The kid took the pokeball eagerly from the Professor, then tossed it shouting, "Squirtle, come on out!"

After the sound of the pokeball opening and a flash of light, the little blue turtle materialized, saying, "Squirtle squirt, squirt squirtle!"

"Come on, squirt," the youngster shouted, "lets go play in the park."

"Squirtle!" the tiny turtle pokemon agreed with equating enthusiasm as the two of them ran off.

"Some kids these days," the professor said with a sweat drop sliding down the back of his head, "i don't know how they have such enthusiasm but it brings me joy to see that pokemon and people can be friends even after having just met. Alright then, who is next?"

James went to raise his hand again, but this time was beaten by a sixteen year old girl who dashed forward saying, "I want to go next."

The professor responded, "Okay, and what pokemon would you like to choose?"

The girl thought for a moment as Professor Oak held out the two remaining balls, one with a green symbol on it and the other with an orange symbol on it. Finally deciding, the girl took the ball with the green symbol on it and shouted, "Go, Bulbasaur!"

"Bulbasaur!" the little green pokemon with a bulb on its back shouted as it greeted the world for the first time with its new trainer.

"Now you take good care of that pokemon, young lady," Professor Oak counseled as the girl and her new friend ran off, "okay then, there's only one pokemon left. Who wants this charmander?"

The professor was surprised when no one had jumped up in front to claim the little fire lizard. James was just as surprised, looking around to see that, in fact, there was no one who wanted a charmander for their first pokemon. 'Wow,' James thought, 'maybe this is some kind of sign. After all, it would be fitting that I start off fresh with another Charmander.' yet, James felt like he would be betraying his longtime friend by choosing another charmander. Deep down, however, James knew that Char-kun would understand.

After much deliberation, James stepped forward, saying, "I'll take the Charmander, Professor."

"Why James," the professor said, "thank you so much, this would have been the third time that i've brought this charmander to be given to a new trainer, only to not be chosen."

As the crowd dispersed after this revelation, much to his astonishment, James asked, "Why?"

"Who knows?" Professor Oak answered as he handed the pokeball to James, "there just hasn't been anyone who wanted to take her."

"Her?" James questioned as he took the pokeball.

"Oh yes, and she has quite the personality," the professor replied with a chuckle, "i cant say how many times i've had to have the lab repainted because she's burned sections of the wall. Come to think of it, there have been quite a few walls that i've just had to replace."

'Well,' James thought, 'now there's no way that I can think i'm replacing Char-kun. In fact, i've always wanted a girl charizard for Char-kun. I hope he likes here when they finally meet.'

Deciding not to delay any further, James tossed the pokeball up, calling, "Charmander, come on out!"

The pokeball popped open, releasing it's contents in a stream of white light, and then closed as it slapped back into James' hand. The light took shape into the familiar form of and adorable little fire lizard as it yawned and said, "Charmander! Char Charman Char!"

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And there you have it folks, Chapter One is complete. How am I doing?


End file.
